Use this case to cleanse system

Chilling stories, sorrowful narratives, grief-stricken descriptions — all about the loss of a breadwinner, companion, mother, father or a loved one.

The narratives have centred around inadequate healthcare facilities, insufficient number of healthcare personnel and sheer unprofessionalism and lack of care.

In their tears, one of the conclusions of the mournful lot is that some people have found themselves in the health sector not because they are cut out for the task in life-saving or that they have interest in the job but that the sector guarantees them a lifetime job security.

The Hippocratic Oath and the Nightingale Pledge that medical doctors and nurses rrespectively take basically talk about the need for them to be professional and sympathetic and use treatment to help the sick.

We would, therefore, want to remind doctors and nurses that their failure or refusal to attend to patients will certainly lower the high repute in which society holds them.

But we know of doctors and nurses who have shown so much professionalism that one is uncomfortable lumping all doctors and nurses together in these circumstances.

However, it is disheartening to witness the behaviour and invectives that especially some nurses hurl on patients whose hospital attendance necessitated the presence of the nurses in the first place, for what is the use of a hospital when there are no patients?

It is about time nurses and doctors became aware that we hold them in high esteem because of the singular sensitive role they play to ensure the total well-being of the populace. No country can be built with a weak and sick population. Good health correlates with development and poverty reduction.

Currently, the country is working towards a Ghana Beyond Aid agenda and if this is to be achieved, then the health of the nation should be critically looked at to ensure that it functions effectively. No investor, foreign or local, would want to put his money in a society where people are left to die, with the flimsy excuse that there are no beds in hospitals.

It is our approach to work that will catapult Ghana into an economic and industrialised giant or keep us perpetually as a developing country with cup in hand begging for alms.

It is a delight to watch how medical professionals in other jurisdictions carry out their assignments with despatch and professionalism.

But the story is different in our country.

The Daily Graphic notes that this does not happen in the medical profession alone. The lackadaisical approach to work is found everywhere — the ministries, departments and agencies — with people approaching their work as if they were begged and carried there. It is felt hardest in the medical field because we may see people die.

Interestingly, most of the people who may be complaining and cursing may be doing worse things at their workplaces.

As citizens and a country, we should use the sad case of 70-year-old Prince Opoku Acheampon to do deep soul searching and start anew in whatever task we find ourselves performing.

We are happy that the Ghana Health Service has set up a committee to investigate the circumstances that led to Mr Opoku Acheampon’s death. We urge the service to use this case to do thorough cleansing and reform of the sector to ensure that such an incident does not recur.

While we are at it, we urge all workers, especially those in the public sector, to re-examine their attitude to work and offer services that will be of benefit to themselves and mankind.